


Reminiscence

by dragonashes



Series: Quintessence: Undertale One-shots [24]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Memories, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-05 20:33:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11021064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonashes/pseuds/dragonashes
Summary: Papyrus doesn't remember his childhood.  That's not a problem though, right?What he doesn't know can't hurt him...right?





	Reminiscence

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place before the events of the game.

Papyrus doesn’t remember much of his childhood.

It’s never an issue, really; he doesn’t like to dwell on the past.  Oh, he learned the history of monsters, like all children - the war, how the Underground was settled, and so on - but history has always been one of those vague, distant things to him.

Then he meets Undyne, full of spunk and spite and the love of two parents and an honorary uncle, and Papyrus _wonders._

The first time he asks his brother about his childhood, after a costume paty the two of them made a super-cool battle body for, Sans treats it as a joke.  This confuses Papyrus; why would Sans think it’s funny?  He laughs along anyways, if only because he can’t find a good reason to protest.

He dreams, that night.  A much larger, rounder hand is holding his, guiding phalanges across the pages of what he knows to be the only book he owns.

_Bread_

_Ma-ri-na-ra Sauce_

_Spa-ghet-ti_

That last one is his favorite.  He likes the pictures, too.

Over the next few weeks there are flashes of something faint, a skull with square glasses that Papyrus thinks look very official, but he can never hold onto the image for very long.  He’s not sure why he finds himself rubbing his hands together after he wakes up, or why he has the urge to tear his gloves off to look for holes in his palms.

_Why do you have holes in your hand, [ERROR]?_

_ERROR_

_ERROR_

_ERROR_410_GONE_

He doesn’t take his gloves off.  Ever.  He doesn’t even remember what the backs of his hands look like.

He doesn’t remember what the backs of his brother’s hands look like.

He doesn’t remember a lot, he’s starting to realize.

He tells Sans, because he tells everything to his brother, and Sans just smiles and shakes his skull.  The smile looks sad, which seems strange.  The brothers hug (and maybe cry a little but they both ignore it).

(Papyrus isn’t sure why he’s crying.)

He tells Undyne, because friends are supposed to tell each other secrets, but she’s not particularly interested.  She thinks history is boring.

How can someone with so _much_ history think it’s _boring?_  Is history like that one song Sans plays on his trombone, where hearing the same few notes over and over again seems to dig deep into her head until it burns?

He doesn’t tell anyone else.

No one asks, even though he overhears the other monsters talking about how strange it was that he and his brother just showed up one day.  No one had heard of them before.  They don’t seem like they’re from New Home (wherever _that_ is), but he’s not sure how they know.

He asks Sans about that too, and Sans responds with a long and complicated explanation involving the history of the different regions of the Underground and how it affects monster accents.  It seems like it should be boring - Undyne would’ve started throwing things a few minutes in, probably - but it’s not.  Sans makes it seem like a story.

Papyrus is disappointed when he realizes, later, that he fell asleep before he got the answer he was looking for.

He hangs out with Undyne more, even though she’s busy with her Royal Guard duties.  She’s just been appointed Captain.  She was Vice Captain for a long time, which meant she was one step away from being _real_ Captain.  She loves it, even though it’s a lot more work than being Vice Captain.  It’s all she ever talks about...well, that and hanging out in the garbage dump, which Papyrus doesn’t like to do.  He wishes that he had something he was so excited about, but he’s not really sure what he wants to do with his life.

Undyne knows the story of every monster in Waterfall, except the Temmies.  (No one knows where the Temmies come from.)  She looks at him funny when he says he wants to visit, but shrugs and gives him directions anyways.  The Temmies are...not very helpful, actually, when it comes to stories.  They insist they have ‘rich history,’ but won’t actually tell him any of it.  It’s a little strange.  They seem so sincere, though, that Papyrus just feeds them the Tem Flakes he bought at the Tem Shop and escapes while they’re distracted.

Undyne laughs when he tells her the story.  They’re the same with everyone, she explains.  The Temmies are a strange group.  She advises him to stay away from them for his own sanity.

He listens.

Sans has been getting lazier and lazier through all of this.  He won’t get out of bed some days, no matter how much Papyrus nags.  It’s grating.  Papyrus can remember a time when Sans was more enthusiastic, but it makes his head feel fuzzy to think about.

Sometimes, it’s just easier to let Sans sleep.  Sometimes, it’s just easier to pretend that this is the way things have always been.

A flower appears one day.  It looks strangely familiar, but Papyrus is sure he’s never met it before.  Just one more thing he can’t remember.

It’s friendly, friendlier than anyone he’s ever met!  Papyrus and Flowey seem to go perfectly together, like spaghetti and meatballs.  Flowey always seems to be in the right place at the right time, always knows what to say to make Papyrus feel better.

He tells Papyrus that being in the Royal Guard will solve all his problems.  Royal Guards have lots of friends, right?  They help people, right?  He would get to work with Undyne, right?

And if sometimes Papyrus gets a funny feeling, like he’s done this all before...well, maybe he has!  He considers asking Flowey about it, but he doesn’t want to offend his new best friend.  Besides, if he’s become friends with Flowey before, then it can mean only good things for the future.

Right?

Sans seems a little wary, which surprises Papyrus.  He’s used to his older brother keeping secrets, but he’s _not_ used to his older brother showing up in strange places whenever he meets with Flowey.  Why, one time he was talking with Flowey and looked up, and there Sans was _in a tree!_  It was almost like Sans was there _on purpose!_  To listen in!!

Which was absurd, of course.  Sans _seems_ very friendly whenever he shows up, which is good (maybe he wants to be friends with Flowey too??); but Flowey always gets nervous.  It was almost like he is _scared_ of Sans.

After some thought, Papyrus decides that this is a reasonable reaction.  Sans is a lazy, messy monster; someone as motivated as Flowey has every right to be wary.  Who knows what kinds of disgusting habits might be contagious??

(He ignores the fact that Sans’s habits haven’t rubbed off on _him_ at all.  He is just that GREAT!!!)

At any rate, Papyrus has gotten busy.  He’s managed to convince Undyne to train him for the Royal Guard.  It’s odd training, not at all like the training she went through to become Captain, but that’s okay!  Every monster is different, she says.  She claps him hard on the back and knocks off a point of HP.  It worries Papyrus for a moment.  What if she’d done that to Sans?

Flowey says not to worry.  Undyne knows what she’s doing.  She has great control, right?  It’s almost as good as Papyrus’s!

One day, Flowey starts asking a lot of questions about Sans.  What does he do all day?  Where does he work?  Does Papyrus ever get tired of his brother’s laziness?  Does Papyrus ever wonder what life would be like without a brother?

And yes, it feels surprisingly good to rant a little about Sans’s bad habits, but as for the rest of it?  It doesn’t matter.  He isn’t sure why _Flowey_ thinks it matters, but after a while the questions become...uncomfortable.  It’s like the only thing Flowey ever wants to talk about is Sans.

When was Sans born?  What did Sans like to do as a kid?  Where did Sans work before moving to Snowdin?  What does Sans do in the basement below the house?

Sans, Sans Sans, Sans.

The worst part about it is not Flowey’s questions, but the fact that Papyrus doesn’t know the answers.  Flowey always seems so surprised, which only makes him feel worse.  How is it possible that he knows so little about his brother?

How was it possible that he knows so little about himself?

Sans starts coming straight home after work, instead of hanging out at Grillby’s.  It takes days for Papyrus to realize that it’s because he is feeling sad, and Sans noticed.  No matter how cheerful he tries to be - how wide he smiles, how passionately he stirs his spaghetti, how many times he asks for bedtime stories - Sans only seems to get more and more worried.

Sans even starts slacking off on recalibrating his puzzles!  Not going to Grillby’s is one thing, but puzzles?  Puzzles are serious!  What would happen if a human came by??

After eight days, Papyrus pulls himself together and goes looking for his brother.  So what if he doesn’t know where he came from?  So what if Sans is keeping secrets?  So what if Flowey needs help remembering what friendship was?

The Great Papyrus will let _nothing_ get him down.

**Author's Note:**

> And there you have it! A few brief notes, since they weren't clear:
> 
> \- Gerson is Undyne's 'honorary uncle'  
> \- Papyrus's first dream-memory is of Sans teaching him to read. The 'only book he owns' is an Italian cookbook.  
> \- The individual with square glasses and holes in his hand is Gaster. In the realm of computers, a 410 error means that whatever you're looking for is gone and will not be available again. (By contrast, the 404 error codes you get when you try to go to a page on a website that doesn't exist means simply that: it doesn't exist right now, but it could in the future.)  
> \- Sans is totally stalking Flowey and Papyrus. Papyrus may not remember meeting Flowey before, but Flowey does. Sans at least suspects what's going on, if not more.  
> \- Flowey is totally manipulating Papyrus's insecurities with his questions. It's not that he wants to know the answers to the questions he's asking; he just wants to plant that seed of doubt in Papyrus.  
> \- As a reminder: we're told that Papyrus has been feeling a bit sad at the beginning of Undertale, which is why a human will cheer him up. Also, Sans has been absent from Grillby's for a while, despite being a regular. So.
> 
> Thanks for reading! If you wish to interact in the Tumblrsphere, [here is the link to my author page](https://dragonasheswrites.tumblr.com/).


End file.
